Inside PRN: Meet Blogger Relations Manager Thomas Hynes

More than a decade ago, Hynes single-handedly organized the Shippan Turkey Trot, a Thanksgiving 5K in his Connecticut hometown to help benefit a local homeless shelter. What began with a handful of runners in costume has grown in recent years to a few hundred participants (costumes encouraged, but not required).

In addition to the race, this blogger relations manager stays pretty busy. Admittedly, he doesn’t get much sleep.

So what does the PR Newswire blogger relations manager do? Well, he blogs.

You can find Hynes’s work on PR Newswire blog, Beyond PR. He also keeps a personal blog and more than a year ago began with a friend another blog called Bike Gang! (Hynes manages the guest writers and riders who participate in it.)

But most importantly, the New Yorker said, he reaches out to and assists blogs.

“My favorite part of the job is anytime that I can help a blogger,” said Hynes, 32. “I also enjoy the writing part of it — writing blog reviews every week. I just jump into a subject, I get really into for a week, and then I walk away.”

Once in a while, he’ll receive a follow up from a blogger, saying that his write up summarized the blog better than anyone had ever done before.

“That’s really satisfying,” Hynes said.

Hynes got his start with PR Newswire in the editorial department in April 2005, and began managing blogger relations in March 2010. Today, no two work days are alike. In addition to writing and keeping up with blogs, Hynes manages the company’s Tumblr page and PR Newswire For Bloggers.

On PR Newswire for Bloggers, Hynes loads releases, curates the stories there, writes blog reviews, and provides content for the blog. He’s handy at troubleshooting with bloggers, helps the PRN sales team with assisting clients on the best ways to reach bloggers, freelances about PR-related material and speaks on panels. Most recently, Hynes spoke at PRWeek’s Social News Summit in New York.

To stay on top of the industry, Hynes attends conferences, tweets live, writes about the events, and shoots video blogs.

During Austin’s annual SXSW Interactive, Hynes shoots with Tom Miale, global account manager for streaming media with MultiVu, what’s become a popular series of five-minute daily video wrap-ups affectionately referred to as TnT. You can find the TnT videos on the PR Newswire YouTube channel. A couple months ago, the duo shot a video on the social consumer.

Personally, Hynes is a loyal friend and has been in 11 weddings in the last couple of years. He anticipates at least a couple more by year end.

“Everyone calls me the male Katherine Heigl,” Hynes said, referring to the actress in 27 Dresses (2008). Most recently, all this wedding experience has served him well. He profiled several wedding blogs on Beyond PR.

Hynes comes from an enormous family (I’m actually not exaggerating. He has only two biological sisters, but through his blended nuclear family with step-siblings and in-laws – Hynes’s total siblings number at 22). He literally has a chart – most might call this a family tree – but Hynes keeps a flowchart of his family nearby.

He also is a proud uncle to 22 nieces and nephews, with a 23rd “in the oven.”

Christine Cube is a media relations manager for PR Newswire and freelance writer. You can follow her @cpcube.

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